Times Have Changed. Why Not Your Fork?

Times Have Changed. Why Not Your Fork?

A designer rethinks everyday eating utensils

Danish designer James Stoklund created a smart and witty set of eating tools that consider both function and how to enhance your dining experience, regardless of what's on the plate. Are you ready to embrace a sea change in utensil design? Slideshow after the jump.

In the last decade alone, we've seem astounding innovations and developments in everyday objects and their design, and yet for as long as we've used them, basic eating utensils like forks and spoons have barely changed. Does that mean they're perfect? Designer James Stoklund doesn't think so — at least not anymore. By rethinking conventional kitchen and eating utensils, the London-based Danish designer set out to create an improved set of instruments that are functional, but also enrich the user's dining experience.

"I challenge the traditional way we eat or pick up food, but at the same time consider the food and its consistency in a playful way," he says. Just as eating is often more than simply a basic functional practice these days, Stoklund came up with a collection of dining objects — a silicone plate that helps you scoop up every last bit of your lunch, or an elongated spoon that provides a more conscious sensation in the mouth — to keep up with the times. Check them out in the slideshow below.